Teresa's Bike Friday nicely packed into its suitcase!
Tools needed for disassembly. A shame about the monkey wrench, but my rack is held on with conventional bolts, not with allen wrench bolts like everything else. A nice innovation that we no longer require special spanners to remove the pedals!
Sue's disassembled bike. These are boxes chosen to be less than 120x90 centimeters, so they will fit in luggage compartments on the TGV. It will turn out they only sort of fit. A little smaller would have been nicer. We could have fit our bikes in slightly smaller boxes, but I don't know if we could have found slightly smaller ones.
My disassembled bike.
Two packed bicycles fitting nicely in the back of the Volvo, without even putting the seat down.
Our stuff next to a sculpture near the TGV station in Charles de Gaulle
Tired travelers, happy to be in the airport instead of a plane.
Yeah! Assembled bicycle!
Another one!
Sue making our bike boxes into packages small enough to dispose of!
View from our hotel room in Orange.
Roman theater in Orange. The other side of this wall is the stage, with a semicircle of seating on a hill around it.
All roads lead to Chateauneuf-du-Pape?
View from the site of the (ruined) new castle of the pope.
Look ma, no trellissing. Many of these Chateauneuf-de-Pape vines look very old, and have very thick trunks, and no trellissing at all. This is just north of CdP on the D69.
Chateauneuf-de-Pape, growing in rocks!
Our hotel room in Orange. We stayed at the Hotel St. Florent, which we liked very much. The people who run the hotel are very sweet.
Orange has "boussenques" on practically every block. Free running spring water. This one is across from our hotel, and this gentleman apparently rides his bike here every day, and fills up for his plants!
I'm filling up at the boussenque as well.
In front of our hotel in Orange
Obligatory sunflower picture. Outside of Orange. The peleton is just behind me.
Flat quiet road with no cars!
Little canal next to the road outside of Orange
Dentelles de Montmirail
Hal and Teresa with Les Dentelles de Montmirail behind.
Vineyard bordered with lavender
Sue filling at one of these public sources. that brass placque says "eau potable" because we wouldn't have been brave enough to risk unmarked water this early in the trip.